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Kevin Crossley-Holland
| birth_place = Mursley, Buckinghamshire, England | nationality = British | education = | alma_mater = University of Oxford | occupation = Translator, Poet, novelist | period = | genre = Fiction | subject = | movement = | notableworks = Arthur Trilogy | spouse = | partner = | children = | relatives = | website = http://kevincrossley-holland.com/ | signature = }} Kevin John William Crossley-Holland (born 7 February 1941) is an English poet, translator, and children's author. His best known work may now be the Arthur trilogy, published around age sixty (2000–2003), for which he won the Guardian Prize Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2001 (top page). guardian.co.uk. 2012-08-07.and other recognition. Life Born in Mursley, north Buckinghamshire, Crossley-Holland grew up in Whiteleaf, a small village in the Chilterns. He attended Bryanston School in Dorset, followed by St Edmund Hall at Oxford University, where after failing his first exams he discovered a passion for Anglo-Saxon literature. After graduating he became the Gregory Fellow in Poetry at the University of Leeds and, from 1972 to 1977, he lectured in Anglo-Saxon for the Tufts University London program. He also taught in the midwestern United States as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at St. Olaf College, as well as Endowed Chair in the Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota). His writing career began when he began working as a poetry, fiction and children’s book editor for Macmillan Publishers. He later become editorial director at Victor Gollancz, Ltd.. He is known for poetry, novels, story collections, and translations, including three editions of the Anglo-Saxon classic Beowulf (1968,Illustrations by Brigitte Hanff; introduction by Bruce Mitchell. London: Macmillan, 1968. 1973,Illustrations by Virgil Burnett; introduction by Bruce Mitchell. London: Folio Society, 1973. ISBN 0-85067-066-7 1999Edited by Heather O'Donoghue. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0-19-283320-4). Some of his books, including the Arthur trilogy, reinterpret medieval legends. He also writes definitive collections of Norse myths (The Penguin Book of Norse Myths) and British and Irish folk tales (The Magic Lands: Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland). Bracelet of Bones, the first of his Viking sagas, was published in 2011, as was The Mountains of Norfolk: New and Selected Poems. He has edited and translated the riddles included in the Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book. Crossley-Holland has also written the libretti for two operas by Nicola LeFanu, The Green Children (1966) and The Wildman (1976), and for a chamber opera about Nelson, Haydn and Emma Hamilton. He has collaborated several times with composers Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias and he has written a stage play, The Wuffings (1999). Crossley-Holland now lives on the North Norfolk coast, where he spent some of his childhood. His autobiography, The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood, was published in 2009.Crossley-Holland, Kevin (2009). The Hidden Roads: A Memoir of Childhood. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-736-0. In 2012 he took up the honorary post of President of the School Library Association.Enitharmon Press: Kevin Crossley-Holland to become SLA President in 2012 Writing Arthur trilogy The Arthur trilogy comprises The Seeing Stone (2000), At the Crossing-Places (2001), and King of the Middle March (2003), published by Orion Children's Books in hardcover editions summing almost 1,100 pages. These have been published in 25 different languages and are most likely the author's best-known works. Crossley-Holland takes a new look at the King Arthur legends, showing a medieval boy's development from a page to a squire and finally to a knight. Alongside this advance, the medieval Arthur faces issues such as his prospective betrothal and inheritance. Meanwhile, he has the "Seeing Stone" through which observes the remarkably parallel early life of King Arthur, several hundred years before. A follow-up to the trilogy was published in 2006, Gatty's Tale. . Retrieved 2012-08-07. Recognition Crossley-Holland and his 1985 novella Storm won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. (Carnegie Winner 1985). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-10. For the 70th anniversary of the Medal in 2007 it was named one of the top ten winning works, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. "70 Years Celebration: Anniversary Top Tens". The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-10. Crossley-Holland garnered the 1985 Carnegie Medal and 2007 "Anniversary Top Ten" recognition from the British librarians for Storm (Heinemann, 1984). For Arthur: The Seeing Stone he won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime award judged by a panel of British children's writers and the Tir na n-Og Award from the Welsh Books Council. The two annual awards for young people's books recognise one fiction published in the U.K., written by an author who has not yet won it, and the best English-language book with "authentic Welsh background". "Guardian children's fiction prize relaunched: Entry details and list of past winners". guardian.co.uk 12 March 2001. Retrieved 2012-08-07. "Tir na n-Og awards Past Winners". WBC. Retrieved 2012-08-07. The Seeing Stone was also bronze runner up for the Smarties Prize in ages category 9–11 years and it made the 2000 Whitbread Awards shortlist. Gatty's Tale was one of seven books on the 2008 Carnegie shortlist."2008 Awards: Carnegie Authors". CILIP. "Releases for 2008 Awards". Press Desk. CILIP. Retrieved 2012-08-07. Publications Poetry *''The Rain-Giver''. London: Andre Deutsch, 1972. *''The Dream-House''. London: Andre Deutsch, 1976. *''Between My Father and My Son''. Minneapolis, MN: Black Willow Press, 1982. *''Time's Oriel''. London: Hutchinson, 1983. *''Waterslain, and other poems''. London: Hutchinson, 1986. *''The Painting-Room, and other poems''. London: Hutchinson, 1988. *''Kevin Crossley-Holland's East Anglia Poems'' (edited by James Dodds). Nayland, Suffok, UK: Jardine Press, 1989. *''New and Selected Poems, 1965-1990''. London: Hutchinson, 1991. *''Eleanor's Advent'' (illustrated by Alyson MacNeill). Llandogo, Monmouth : Old Stile Press, 1992. *''The Language of Yes''. London: Enitharmon Press, 1996. *''Poems from East Anglia''. London: Enitharmon Press, 1987. *''Selected Poems''. London: Enitharmon Press, 2002. *''The Mountains of Norfolk: New and selected poems''. London: Enitharmon Press, 2011. *''Moored Man: Poems of North Norfolk''. London: Enitharmon Press, 2006. Juvenile *''The Norse Myths''. London: Andre Deutsch, 1980; New York: Pantheon, 1980. *''The Fox and the Cat: Kevin Crossley-Holland's animal tales from Grimm'' (illustrated by Susan Varley). New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1986. *''British Folk Tales: New versions''. London: Orchard Books, 1987, 1991. *''Folk-Tales of the British Isles'' (illustrated by Hannah Firmin). New York: Pantheon, 1988; London & Boston: Faber, 1981. *''The World of King Arthur and His Court'' (illustrated by Peter Malone). New York: Dutton, 1999. *''How Many Miles to Bethlehem?'' (illustrated by Peter Malone). London: Orion, 2004; New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2004. *''Waterslain Angels''. London: Orion, 2008. Arthur Trilogy *''The Seeing Stone''. London: Orion, 2000; New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2000. *''At the Crossing Places''. London: Orion, 2001; New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2002. *''King of the Middle March''. London: Orion, 2001; New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2003. Translated *''Beowulf''. London: Macmillan, 1968; New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1968 **''Beowulf'' & The Fight at Finnsburgh (with Heather O'Donoghue). Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. *''The Battle of Maldon, and other Old English poems''. London: Macmillan / New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965. *''Storm, and other Old English riddles''. London: Macmillan, 1970; New York: Farrar, Straus, & Grioux, 1970. *''The Exeter Book Riddles'' (translator). London: The Folio Society, 1978; Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Classics, 1979. **''Storm'' (illustrated by Alan Marks). London: Heinemann, 1985. *''The Anglo-Saxon Elegies'' (with Hannah Firmin). London: The Folio Society, 1988. Edited *''Running to Paradise: an introductory selection of the poems of W.B. Yeats''. London: Macmillan, 1967. *''New Poetry 2'' (edited with Patricia Beer). London: The Arts Council, 1976. *''The Anglo-Saxon World: An anthology''. Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. *''Oxford Book of Travel Verse''. Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. *''Peter Grimes: the poor of the borough''. London: The Folio Society, 1990. *''The New Exeter Book of Riddles'' (editor with Lawrence Sail). London: Enitharmon Press, 1999. *''Light Unlocked: Christmas card poems'' (editor with Lawrence Sail), Enitharmon Press, 2005. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Kevin Crossley-Holland, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 3, 2014. See also *List of British poets References External links ;Poems *"Leaf-Girl..." ;Books * ;Audio / video *Kevin Crossley-Holland (b. 1941) at The Poetry Archive *Kevin and Oenone Crossley-Holland Poetry Reading at YouTube ;About *Kevin Crossley-Holland in Gale Biographies of Children's Authors *Kevin Crossley-Holland at the British Council * Kevin Crossley-Holland Official website. * The Guardian: Interview ;Etc. * The Archive of Kevin Crossley-Holland, Leeds University Library Category:English children's writers Category:English poets Category:English opera librettists Category:Writers on Germanic paganism Category:Carnegie Medal in Literature winners Category:Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winners Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Honorary Fellows of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Category:St. Olaf College faculty Category:Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Category:People educated at Bryanston School Category:People from Buckinghamshire Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets